…an eclectic mix of travel photos with a birding theme, home and away.

A Tale of Two Cities

Following on from yesterdays ‘A Comedy of Errors’, todays offering focuses on Cardiff, which was just over half way on our journey of 96k – but more of that in a moment. The day started rather leisurely because it was raining when we got up. By the time we’d messed about, had breakfast and packed, it was about 10.00 before we set off. Not sure what is it about our over-night stops but they all seem to require a massive uphill effort immediately on departure – today was no exception! Once we were clear of the A48 and on the minor road to Llantwit Major, things got considerably easier, with the skies lightening and the modest breeze on our backs, we soon made it to our coffee stop. Amazingly, when we were looking to ask someone which road to take out of the town, we bumped into an E2E veteran! He helpfully put us on the right road and advised us on the best way to circumnavigate Cardiff. Entering Barry we suffered only our second puncture of the trip – this time it was in the rear tyre and nowhere near a cafe – bad call Bry! We were quickly back on the road, only to be brought to another abrupt holt by Bry’s chain coming off – luckily this time we were within spitting distance of a McDonalds, which doubled as a wash-room and lunch stop. The afternoon began with a pleasant meander through the lovely coastal town of Penarth (Yvonne, our corporate sponsor, if you are reading this, I’m not just saying this because you live there…!) which is also the beginning of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, once you find it! What a great way to see the city – almost on a par with entering Venice from the outer islands. No, hang on, I think I might have got a bit carried away there – but anyway it was very nice! Now this is where the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ comes in, because as pleasant as the entry into the city was, the exit was utterly horrible! Badly signed, appalling road surfaces, speeding traffic, no cycle paths and endless! Eventually, after miles of this stuff ,we did run out of industrial estates and landfill sites and found a B road that took us through miles of quiet cow pastures and into Newport where we were once again reunited with the infamous NCN ‘4’. A handy cash machine at a 24 hour Tesco on the edge of town and a couple of miles along the road and we arrived at tonights stop, the New Inn at Langstone, great value but lousy internet! So if you don’t get any pics with tonights blog you can amuse yourselves by looking at yesterdays, which I’ve now managed to load. Happy viewing.

Details of the route were as follows:

‘..the rain has stopped, I guess we’d better get off’

Only the second puncture of the whole trip, and not a cafe in sight, but yes, Bryan did get to use his ‘magic tool’ again!

Proof for Yvonne that we did visit her beloved town..

The beginning of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, looking towards the capital.

The view the other way, across the Severn to the coast of Devon (we’ll be there soon enough!)

The Norwegian church and some funny statue

Now you don’t get to see many of these…the transporter bridge at Newport. They never really caught on did they!

The birding today was interesting but unexciting – no new species added to the existing 110 for the trip.

I am so touched at your final acknowledgement that there are good things in Wales. Even if we can’t build roads. I think it is churlish to keep mentioning the bits of Bryan and his bike that keep breaking. Have any bits fallen off Trevor yet?!! Great stuff,
Yvonne